Thursday, December 27, 2012

Doug had this brilliant idea that maybe if we stopped going to so many happy hours all the time, we could actually save up for a nice non-happy hour meal once in a while. Which is how we ended up at Ox.

If you follow the Portland restaurant scene at all, you already know that Ox is this year's darling (see this recent Eater post for proof). And after dining there, I can see why.

Doug and I were lucky enough to score a seat around the grill, giving us a close look at Ox's specialty: Argentinian-style wood-fired meats.

Our seats confirmed that ordering the Asado Argentino for 2, essentially a meat sampler platter, was a good idea.

Each platter comes with grilled short ribs, house chorizo, blood sausage, skirt steak, and sweetbreads, plus fried potatoes and a green salad.

I'm not a huge meat eater outside of my occasional burger cravings, so I was a little intimated by the sight of all that meat. Hopefully Doug was hungry? But a few bites in, I realized that when meat is this good, it's definitely something I can get behind.

Doug and I both thought the chorizo was some of the best we've ever had. The skirt steak came in second place for me while Doug loved the short ribs.

With all the meat plus potatoes and salad, there was more than enough food for the two of us and we had a good amount of leftovers to take home.

But that also might have been because we ate too much of the delicious house bread with chimichurri...

Or because we also decided we needed to try an empanada.

We went with the beef, green olive, and raisin option. I loved it and would be plenty happy going back for one of these and drink. At $5 each, that's about as close as you're going to get to happy hour Ox and I'll take it!

We also were treated with complimentary cups of creamy mushroom soup. A gift from the kitchen (even if every diner gets one) always makes a meal so much more special.

And of course, we also had to try some cocktails.

For me, the Girl from Ipanema made with pisco, Combier Peche (peach liqueur), lime and honey. For Doug, Shipwreck with bourbon, rum, lime, mint and Angostura Bitters. Both were delicious and complimented the food well.

Hopefully we'll be back at Ox soon- there were some amazing-smelling pieces of lamb with burning rosemary coming off the grill that I'd love to try!